National Bank of Canada FI Cuts Stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

National Bank of Canada FI cut its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 15.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 431,100 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 81,208 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI owned 0.13% of Juniper Networks worth $16,145,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 25.5% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 7,668 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management purchased a new position in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,374,000. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in Juniper Networks by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 15,394 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $577,000 after acquiring an additional 660 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $614,280,000 after acquiring an additional 574,418 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 12.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 88,162 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,302,000 after acquiring an additional 9,548 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on JNPR. StockNews.com cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Argus cut Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:JNPR opened at $33.94 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $33.72 and a 12 month high of $39.79. The company has a market capitalization of $11.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.46, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $35.93 and its 200 day moving average is $37.31.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. Research analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.59%. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is 102.33%.

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks, Inc designs, develops, and sells network products and services worldwide. The company offers routing products, such as ACX series universal access routers to deploy high-bandwidth services; MX series Ethernet routers that function as a universal edge platform; PTX series packet transport routers; wide-area network SDN controllers; and session smart routers.